(Riley) Autovia 1935-9,

The
Autovia was created due to Victor Riley's wish to
produce a luxury car that wanted to keep apart
from the Riley Motor Companies products. During
1935 he sent Gordon Marshall to ask C. M. Van
Eugen whether he would undertake the task. The
'Autovia' was a short lived marque from 1935 to 1938
with production starting in January 1937 as a venture
which included training for chauffeurs. Large
luxury cars were expensive and meant competing in a
market sector long served by other companies such as
Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Lagonda Alvis etc . . .
. " Van Eugen agreed to work on the Autovia, although
no contract, nothing on paper, ever passed between him
and Gordon Marshall and Victor Riley. He was given an
office in the Riley factory and commenced work with
two draughtsmen he brought from Lea-Francis. Victor
Riley said, in effect, "We have an engine, develop
it," referring to the Riley V8, but all Van Eugen had
to work on was the cylinder block of this, engine and
that was the wrong size. In any case, this engine was
suffering from carburation problems and as by this
time Harry Rose had left the Riley Company, they were
without an engine man to rectify these.

Van Eugen set out to build a
low-slung, silent-running car that could challenge the
25/30 h.p. Rolls-Royce market. He was entirely
responsible for this Autovia, as it was called, even
to ordering all the materials and taking cars out on
test. In a small shop in the Riley factory three
experimental cars were built.

A new 90º 3-bearing crankshaft
was designed, the biggest task being to apply
balance-weights to this shaft within the confines of
the crankcase. The solution was found in bolted-on
lead-bronze weights filled with lead, and the
crankshaft was fully machined. The 90º V8 engine, of
69 x 95¼ mm. (2,849 c.c.) had three camshafts, the
centre one between the cylinder blocks operating the
inlet valves and the others the exhaust valves. The
famous Riley push-rod valve gear was retained,
enabling hemispherical combustion chambers to be
obtained without the complication of o.h. camshafts,
and the rocker-gear, plugs and cylinder head holding
down studs were extremely accessible.

Quiet timing gears were obtained
by using a gear of high-carbon steel driving a
cast-iron inlet timing gear, the exhaust camshaft
gears being of phosphor-bronze. A fourth gear carried
the fan pulley and provided a drive for the
tachometer. The cylinder heads were new, not those of
the successful Riley Falcon, but the Autovia engine
was literally two 4-cylinder units united, each block
having its own downdraught carburetter, own inlet
manifold, own water pump, and own exhaust system. The
dynamo was driven directly from the nose of the
crankshaft, following Riley practice, and this V8
power unit was 5-point rubber mounted, use being made
of Silentbloc bushes.

To obtain a low chassis, and thus
be able to claim a low floor level with consequent
ease of entry and egress and a flat floor free from
wells and transmission tunnel, Van Eugen used fully
boxed channel-section side-members which passed under
the back-axle, the latter being of the worm type.
David Brown supplied the underslung worm assemblies,
the first deliveries of which were not entirely
trouble-free. Other contributions to a floor height of
only 21 in. were trunnion spring-mountings in lieu of
shackles and a front axle in which the springs passed
through square box-type mountings in the axle beam
itself. A good lock gave a turning circle of 40 ft.

The front compartment was kept
clear by using a horizontal r.h. brake lever and a
pre-selector gearbox with its steering-wheel control.
This gearbox gave four forward speeds, the indirects
being either 17.28, 10.05, and 6.63 to 1, or 16.25,
9.46 and 6.23 to 1, depending on whether the 4.86 or
4.57 to 1 axle ratio was specified. Assuming the
engine would pull 5,000 r.p.m., the respective maximum
speeds were 25, 43, 65 and 89 m.p.h., or 28, 46, 70
and 95 m.p.h. Dunlop "Fort" 19 x 5.5 tyres were
fitted. The gearbox was an Armstrong Siddeley and Van
Eugen often had to reject half-a-dozen or so before he
encountered one sufficiently quiet for his purpose.

Torque-tube transmission was
employed with an ingenious vee-forward-mounting on
Silentbloc bushes. Van Eugen designed a centrifugal
clutch under Newton patents, to give two-pedal control
in traffic. He endowed the Autovia with excellent
Girling brakes with magnesium-alloy back plates. Other
outstanding features were a 16-gallon rear fuel tank
feeding the Zenith Type 36 VI-2 carburetters through
an L-type S.U. pump, automatic chassis lubrication and
inter-connected Lovax shock-absorbers.

Van Eugen, who controlled the
entire project, even to making the required jigs and
tools, designed a very deep-shell, handsome radiator
with thermostatically-controlled shutters, in which a
trace of Lea-Francis can be discerned.

A move was made to part of a
rented Ordnance factory in Coventry and with 30 or 40
men Van Eugen was ready to go into production. The
ultimate aim was about 20 cars a week, in sportsman's
coupé, saloon and limousine forms, for which Arthur
Mulliner bodies the names "Princess Marina" and "Queen
Mary" were coined. The chassis had a wheelbase of 10
ft. 9 in. and cost £685. The saloon was priced at
£975, the limousine at £995. With prices under four
figures and very great care taken over sound
deadening, these fully-equipped Autovias, or luxury
Rileys, looked like being successful. Van Eugen did
his testing locally, eschewing Brooklands, as this was
a luxury car. He drove a limousine as his personal
car. On the bench at the Ordnance factory the engine
gave 97 b.h.p. with silencers and all components in
place.

The first Autovia made its
appearance at the 1936 Ramsgate Concours
d'Elegance, eighteen months after Van Eugen had
been appointed to produce it, and it took first prize
in the £1,000 class. Press road-tests confirmed that
the saloon would exceed 90 m.p.h. on Brooklands Track,
although Autovia Cars Ltd., whose address was Midland
Road, Coventry, were content to claim 80 m.p.h. Alas,
Riley Motors got into financial difficulties, the
Autovia project was moved back to the Riley works and
early in 1938, when a receiver was appointed for Riley
(Coventry) Ltd., because Autovia Cars Ltd. was an
asset it was put into voluntary liquidation. Perhaps
50 cars had been made." from an interview with Van
Eugen in Motorsport April 25th 1964

Autovia was created by Victor Riley as a
subsidiary to produce these large luxury cars and a
new factory was built but seems to have produced
between 32 and 44 cars mostly bodied
by Arthur Mulliner and some sold as rolling
chassis. A 2849cc, 90°V-8, triple camshaft engine was
developed from a pair of 1½-litre Riley engine blocks
and coupled to the conventional four-speed manual
gearbox or in a few cases, a much more fun
pre-selector unit supplied by Armstrong
Siddeley. Three body types were available a
Sports Saloon, a Special Saloon with extra legroom
instead of boot space and a Limousine, the car was
also available as a rolling chassis. This failed when
Riley went bankrupt and were taken over by the
Nuffield Organisation who 'rationalised the range'
; with the Autovia name was never
resurrected. When the company went into
receivership all the remaining stock and unfinished
cars were purchased by Jimmy James Ltd who finished
them as 'specials'

One fact that hindered the Autovia was weight it came
in at 1814.37 kilo . . .In all, it appears that
perhaps 4 Limousines were completed and sold, the
remainder being the sporting saloon, amounting.
"With reference to Autovia production numbers I can
confirm at least 5 limousines were produced in a
total production run of 44 cars. The theory that the
overall numbers were lower was brought about by a
longstanding gap in the chassis number record, but I
have managed to poulate that gap with at least 3
cars, suggesting that the chassis number series was
unbroken from 63101 to 63144." (Source G
Thomas 2016)

1939
cars:- FUU 38*
also at one pointMAN 6559 when in the Isle of Man,( Saloon
Chassis No 6314*),
Blue
Diamond's car

The Autovia Saloon

The last number is replaced with an *asterisk
but known to the clubs .There will be others in
other clubs and countries please click
+ email info

from Australian page http://www.rileyqld.org.au/

MOTOR DICTA, By H. E.
SYMONS. IT takes a brave man to break in on the
thousand-pound-car market with an entirely new make,
yet Mr. Victor Riley, the chairman and managing
director of Autovia Cars, Ltd., has the necessary
courage and conviction. The Autovia limousine has
been produced to meet the demand for a really roomy
and comfortable seven seater of the most luxurious
description, which is at the same time easier to
handle, to park, and to garage, and more economical
to maintain. One might almost say that the Autovia
is Mr. Victor Riley's hobby. Having pro duced what
is perhaps the most consistently successful small
car in the world, he decided that it would be inter
esting to produce what he regarded as the ideal
motor-carriage. With Mr. Gordon Marshall and others,
he discussed his ideals. Neither time nor money
considerations mattered. Unhurried and unharassed,
the designers could work out the perfect solution of
every problem that confronted them, and not until
this new car had successfully passed all its tests
was any thought given to placing it on the market.
The Autovia is primarily a chauffeur-driven car. The
sort of automobile in which successful middle-aged
men are driven to business or to the theatre. It is,
however, a very pleasant car to drive, and the same
type of motorist who rates comfort and silence, and
general luxury in movement above other
considerations will find in it exactly what he
requires. It must not be thought from the foregoing
that there is any need to apologise for the
performance of the Autovia. It has a high
cruising-speed of round about 80 m.p.h., and a
useful degree of acceleration. An interesting point
about this car is that, in direct contrast to the
majority of motor-vehicles, it becomes more
comfortable and more silent as its speed increases.
The go-degree eight- cylinder engine, rated at 24
h.p. and taxed at £18, is both smooth and powerful.
The capacity is considerably below three litres, for
it was felt that no higher power was necessary in a
carriage of this de scription. There is nothing
outre about this well-balanced chassis or the
finished vehicle rather does the Autovia cling to
traditional styles of radiator and coach- work
design. It is essentially quiet and unobtrusive in
appear ance, yet possessing a natural dignity, so
that it looks well even when in the company of the
most expensive cars in existence. Although the
luxurious body is of the full width and length that
one would expect on a much larger chassis, the
over-all dimen sions of the vehicle have been kept
down owing to the very compact nature of the V-8
engine. The floor, which is absolutely flat, is
lower than usual, with the result that the Autovia
is extremely easy to get in and out of, while the
centre of gravity is brought so low that any
tendency to roll on corners is entirely eliminated.

The driving of the
Autovia is simplicity itself, thanks to the
extremely efficient automatic clutch, which frees
itself as soon as the engine-speed drops below a
certain figure. In traffic, therefore, it is quite
unnecessary to keep a foot on the clutch-pedal, and
fatigue is enormously reduced. A pre-selective
four-speed gear-box reduces gear-changing to the
utmost simplicity. The control lever, moreover, is
mounted more neatly than I have seen it on any other
car, projecting as it does from the boss of the
centre of the steering-wheel, so that gear-changing
can be effected quite easily with a flick of the
thumb. The left-hand pedal is, strictly speaking, a
gear-changing one only, for it is unnecessary to use
it as a clutch having pre-selected the required
gear, one simply depresses and instantly releases
the left-hand pedal, and the gear is engaged. As on
every car with a pre-selective gear of this type,
one can drive in top gear with third already
pre-selected, so that if a sudden change of gear is
called for, either in order to accelerate more
rapidly or when climbing a hill, one has only to
kick the pedal, without having first to move the
selector gear-lever. In effect, therefore, the
Autovia has a two-pedal control and driving is
simplified accordingly. I have never met a
limousine, particularly with so much comfort as
this, that handles better on corners. One can, if
one wishes, drive the Autovia almost as one would a
racing car, for even at 70 m.p.h. quite sharp bends
can be taken in perfect safety. The brakes are
another good feature the hand-brake being disposed
beside the driver's seat, readily accessible for the
right hand, yet not interfering in any way with the
ease of ingress from the driver's door. The
equipment of the Autovia is most complete,
head-lights being specially powerful to allow
driving at the highest speed of which the car is
capable. Loud- and soft-note horns are provided, and
the windscreen wipers can either be operated both
together or independently. The instruments are
illuminated at night from inside, and the intensity
of the light can be regulated. With a luxurious
limousine body, equipped, among other things, with a
telephone between driver and passengers, the Autovia
is priced at £995. The five-seater saloon is listed
at £975. The Sketch Wednesday 24 November
1937